The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday, the court announced on social media.
This means that neither Netanyahu nor Gallant can travel to any of the 120 countries that are party to the Rome Statute.
The ICC said that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant committed the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other humane acts.
The court says it found reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant knowingly deprived Gaza’s civilian population of essential supplies, including food, water, fuel, and medical aid, in violation of international humanitarian law.
These actions allegedly created life-threatening conditions, leading to civilian deaths from malnutrition and dehydration. The disruption of medical supplies also resulted in extreme suffering, including surgeries performed without anesthesia.
The ICC says it found that decisions to allow limited humanitarian aid were often conditional and insufficient to alleviate Gaza’s dire conditions. The alleged actions, which disregarded international warnings, formed part of a systematic attack against civilians, the court stated.
Israel had filed an official objection to the ICC regarding the legality of the prosecutor’s request to issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant in September.
Israel claimed that the court has no authority to discuss the Palestinian complaint against it, which recently led to the prosecutor’s request to issue arrest warrants against the prime minister and the defense minister.
These claims were rejected in pre-trial, with the chamber noting that “the acceptance by Israel of the Court’s jurisdiction is not required, as the Court can exercise its jurisdiction on the basis of territorial jurisdiction of Palestine, as determined by Pre-Trial Chamber I in a previous composition.”
The court also said that “the Prosecution notified Israel of the initiation of an investigation in 2021. At that time, despite a clarification request by the Prosecution, Israel elected not to pursue any request for deferral of the investigation,” rejecting Israel’s second objection.